Gardaí pledge to scrap fees for access to fatal road accident documents

Following representations from the Garda Commissioner, the force said it had reviewed documentation fees relating to fatal and serious injury road traffic collisions.

From 2017, fees will be waived in relation to collisions where a fatality has occurred, and fees will be capped at €1,000 in relation to collisions resulting in a serious injury.

In cases where the investigation is ongoing, criminal proceedings are contemplated or initiated, or an inquest has not been completed by the Coroner, an amended abstract report form containing “appropriate information” as per the Road Traffic Act 1961 will be supplied for free.

The announcement has been welcomed by road safety group Parc, which has been campaigning on the issue for eight years.

The group recently met with the Garda Commissioner and cited a Donegal road accident which killed eight people.

Under current rules, families have to pay €60 for the abstract report on a crash and €40 for each witness statement.

In the case of the Donegal families, there were over 250 witness statements, meaning each family would have been expected to pay €10,000 to obtain all of them.

Susan Gray, Parc chairwoman, told The Irish Times: “We are grateful to the Garda Commissioner for the opportunity to meet with her and her senior officials recently along with the bereaved to explain the pain and difficulties that families have to journey through.

“We are grateful for her time and empathy and her decision to remove these fees. We thank all those individuals who supported our campaign and stayed with us in our efforts through thick and thin over the past eight years.”